Dissertations and Theses - Slavic Languages and Literatureshttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/29955
Tue, 31 Mar 2015 18:17:06 GMT2015-03-31T18:17:06ZThe Non-Aspectual Verbal Theme /A/ in Russianhttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/72609
The Non-Aspectual Verbal Theme /A/ in Russian
The non-aspectual a-theme is opposed to the imperfectivizing aspectual a-theme in prefixed verbforms, e.g. prodvigal (moved), napeval (sang). For the most part, the non-aspectual a-theme occurs in unprefixed verbforms, e.g. bodal (butted), oxal (said 'oh'). The a-theme here is inserted between a root and an ending to preserve the root, e.g. /bod-a-l/, /ox-a-l/. The verbform bodal exhibits a thematization shift from zero-theme to a-theme: from the OCS form bolu to the modern form bodal. The onomatopoeic verbform oxal also shows a-thematization for the preservation of the root /ox/: /ox-a-l/.; The a-theme in the past is paradigmatically combined with varieties of thematic elements in the present: -a-/-i-, e.g. spal - spit (sleep), -a-/-e-, e.g. sosal - soset (suck), -a-/-je-, e.g. pisal - piset (write), -a-/-aje-, e.g. delal - delajet (do). The aje-thematization is so productive among the a-thematizations that there is a tendency of the shift from the -e-, -je- to the -aje-thematization, e.g. stonet - stonajet (groans), krapljet - krapajet (spatters).; The reason is that the aje-thematization has advantages over the others in root preservation and paradigmatic switch. Root-preservation has to do with the sound feature of the back vowel /a/ in contrast with that of the front vowel /e/ or the glide /j/ that can effect a change of root-final consonants. The paradigmatic switch from the past -a- to the present -aje- is easier than to -e- or -je-.; In general, aje-thematization is productive in onomatopoeia, e.g. oxal (said 'oh'), tikal (ticked). However, productivity varies from one case to another. There is onomatopoeic -(o)ta-/-(o)ce-thematization where aje-thematization does not exhibit encroachment upon this thematization, e.g. groxotal - groxocet (crash), xoxotal - xoxocet (guffaw). It is assumed that ota-thematization is productive in a limited range of onomatopoeia.
Language, Linguistics
Wed, 01 Jan 1992 00:00:00 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/726091992-01-01T00:00:00ZP. I. Mel'nikov-Pecherskii in the History of the Russian Novelhttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/71570
P. I. Mel'nikov-Pecherskii in the History of the Russian Novel
Both opponents and admirers of of Mel'nikov-Pecherskii's literary works agree that he gave a precise description of everyday life, religious ceremonies, customs and traditions of Old Believers in the Transvolga district.; The dissertation proposes a different approach to Mel'nikov-Pecherskii's novels and reappraises his literary reputation in the history of Russian literature. The literary and historical sources of the novels In the Woods (1871-73) and On the Hills (1874-81) are identified and analyzed. The identification and the analysis of literary and historical wellsprings affords a deeper understanding of the events in the novels, as well as of the characters and their actions.; Mel'nikov-Pecherskii's novels go far beyond the frame of the ethnographical novel. In the novels In the Woods and On the Hills, Mel'nikov-Pecherskii turned to the crucial theme of Russian literature--the search for the supreme truth. Almost all of his characters search for the Absolute, although the idea of this Absolute is different for each of them. Some of the characters are engaged in a search for a true religion, or in God-seeking.; Like Dostoevskii and L. Tolstoi, Mel'nikov-Pecherskii in his novels shows man as prey to mysterious forces within and without which can lead under certain circumstances to his destruction both moral and physical. In his two novels, Mel'nikov-Pecherskii uses middle-class characters as material for tragedy and shows that tragedy often arises out of their social and class experience. Moreover, Mel'nikov-Pecherskii uses the classical elements of tragedy in a purely Russian setting, thus creating Russian counterparts to the classical tragic heroes of world literature.; The novels In the Woods and On the Hills are steeped in Russian mythology and Russian folk and Biblical symbolism. The recurring mythic symbols create a mythic time-setting in the novels. The dissertation explores Mel'nikov-Pecherskii's use of mythology and symbols as creating the necessary literary premises for the development of Russian symbolism. The novels In the Woods and On the Hills may be looked upon as a link between the Russian literary traditions of the 19th century and the works of Russian symbolists. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)
Literature, Slavic and East European
Fri, 01 Jan 1988 00:00:00 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/715701988-01-01T00:00:00ZN. V. Gogol' and the Baroque (Russia)http://hdl.handle.net/2142/71569
N. V. Gogol' and the Baroque (Russia)
This dissertation was undertaken in order to examine the relationship between the writings of N. V. Gogol' and Baroque literature. While some scholars labeled elements of Gogol''s writings as &quot;Baroque,&quot; a systematic comparison of Gogol''s works and Baroque literature has never been done. In order to make this comparison, the dissertation begins with a discussion of the meaning of the word &quot;Baroque&quot; in European literature and a brief survey of important Baroque genres, themes, and stylistic devices. It then moves to an analysis of Gogol''s physical, familial, and educational environment in order to establish concrete links between Gogol' and Baroque culture. After this link is confirmed, a thorough examination of Gogol''s complete writings, including his personal correspondence and notebooks as well as his fiction, is made. The survey concludes that themes and stylistic devices common to Baroque literature are present in Gogol''s writings and also that he adopted some aspects of Baroque genres in his works. At the same time, it becomes clear that the relationship between Gogol' and Baroque literature was not a static one but, rather, a relationship that evolved and changed as the author matured and which also varied according to Gogol''s literary task. Baroque elements appear most often in Gogol''s early works, particularly in those which deal with the Baroque Ukraine. In his later works, Baroque elements also appear, but Gogol' frequently transforms them in order to create &quot;Baroque-inspired&quot; but unique literary forms.; Baroque elements are scattered throughout Gogol''s works, but they never play a central role in his writings as they did in Baroque literature; therefore, it cannot be concluded that Gogol' was heavily indebted to Baroque literature. The study of Gogol' and Baroque literature, however, sheds important light on Gogol''s literary heritage and personality.
Literature, Slavic and East European
Sun, 01 Jan 1984 00:00:00 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/715691984-01-01T00:00:00ZThe Works of Mikhail A. Bulgakov: A Search for the Ideal Hero (Russia)http://hdl.handle.net/2142/71568
The Works of Mikhail A. Bulgakov: A Search for the Ideal Hero (Russia)
Underlying the wonderfully varied and often delightfully comic oeuvre of Mikhail Afanas'evich Bulgakov (1891-1940) was a stern intent: to examine, protest, and ultimately (particularly in his last, most challenging novel, The Master and Margarita), to answer society's many abuses of the individual. In the brutal aftermath of the Russian Revolution and Civil War, Bulgakov's need for a figure who would effectively uphold his own exacting value system became ever more compelling. His protagonists quickly became instruments of retaliation; to counteract society's consistent denigration of the human spirit, he portrayed what elevates it, turning soon to the gifted individual, and most often the Writer, as the clearest exemplar--and in his frequent failures, the most to be lamented--of the values of freedom and compassion which Bulgakov was pursuing. The Master and Margarita embodies Bulgakov's meticulously developed counter-argument to the materialistic and man-centered philosophy fostered by submission to temporal authority.; The dissertation begins by examining the continuity between Bulgakov's work and the output of (a) the nineteenth-century writers who portrayed the conflicts and impotence of the so-called Superfluous Man; (b) the alienated Fellow-Travellers of the 1920's; and (c) the satirists of the immediate post-Revolutionary period. Then, Bulgakov's own work is explored insofar as it contributes to an understanding of what it was that he valued in a &quot;positive&quot; hero. The principal characters of his last novel are analysed in detail in light of their responses to the demands which Bulgakov placed upon them. His most valued heroes reflect his own sense of responsibility for the fate of justice and truth, and thus for the direction of society. The Master is found to have betrayed his duty to his art and to the principles expressed in his &quot;novel.&quot; Ieshua's ability to create that Truth which he so loves, and to give adequate weight to the need to choose the Good, is questionable at best. Margarita and Pilate are briefly dealt with here. It is Woland who is the consistent prophet of that enlightened virtue which should lead man to understand and accept his difficult choices, and thus to progress and perfect himself.
Literature, Slavic and East European
Sat, 01 Jan 1983 00:00:00 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/715681983-01-01T00:00:00ZAleksej Konstantinovic Tolstoj and Russian Romanticismhttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/71567
Aleksej Konstantinovic Tolstoj and Russian Romanticism
Aleksej Konstantinovic Tolstoj is, perhaps, Russia's most Romantic poet and, as N. Kotljarevskij wrote in the nineteenth century, its most religious writer. Tolstoj had the hubris to advance a world view, to re-write Dante and the Bible and to offend every political and literary interest. Touched by Catholicism as had been Novalis and the German Romantics, Tolstoj's works were most thoroughly shaped by German Idealism and the radical Protestant sects of the early nineteenth century. The poet's works are invested with a private mythology and a symbolic significance. The writer started as a poet of supreme individualism and aestheticism. His views of Christianity are aesthetic and moral. He was among the first to deal blows to religious Slavophilism and Russian nationalism. The character of Tolstoj's oeuvre, its ties to Voltairianism and late, decadent Classicism, places it historically within that of the Puskin Pleiad. The writer's quest for God presents a significant parallel to the works of Dostoevskij and those of the poet's cousin, L. N. Tolstoj. The poet's militant mystical individualism contrasts with the collectivistic trends that dominated the era. Humor, destructively nihilistic, inseparably blends with a high-strung religious and moral earnestness.; Tolstoj's works are conflict-ridden and underlined by a deeply-felt sense of crisis. Perhaps closest to F. I. Tjutcev among Russian poets, Tolstoj in his early works most readily reveals traces and direct parallels with M. Ju. Lermontov and Puskin. Few writers, whose imagination was primarily aesthetic, have managed to escape the socially and politically tense atmosphere of mid-nineteenth century Russian literary life. To compare Tolstoj, who, like Lermontov, represents the rebellious element of the Russian consciousness, to Tennyson is to ignore the profound Romantic experience that underlines the writer's oeuvre.
Literature, Slavic and East European
Sat, 01 Jan 1983 00:00:00 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/715671983-01-01T00:00:00ZAcronyms, Semiacronyms and Other Abbreviations in Contemporary Standard Russianhttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/68417
Acronyms, Semiacronyms and Other Abbreviations in Contemporary Standard Russian
Language, Modern
Sun, 01 Jan 1978 00:00:00 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/684171978-01-01T00:00:00ZThe Effects of The Fall of The Jers on The Prosodic System of Proto-Serbo-Croatianhttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/68415
The Effects of The Fall of The Jers on The Prosodic System of Proto-Serbo-Croatian
Language, Linguistics
Sun, 01 Jan 1978 00:00:00 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/684151978-01-01T00:00:00ZPhonological Rules in the Nominative Singular and the Genitive Plural of the Slavic Substantive Declensionhttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/68416
Phonological Rules in the Nominative Singular and the Genitive Plural of the Slavic Substantive Declension
Language, Linguistics
Sun, 01 Jan 1978 00:00:00 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/684161978-01-01T00:00:00ZThe Soviet Russian Short Story: 1950s-1970shttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/68413
The Soviet Russian Short Story: 1950s-1970s
Literature, Slavic and East European
Sat, 01 Jan 1977 00:00:00 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/684131977-01-01T00:00:00ZThe Early Prose of Vladimir Nabokov-Sirin: A Commentary on Themes, Style, and Structurehttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/68412
The Early Prose of Vladimir Nabokov-Sirin: A Commentary on Themes, Style, and Structure
Literature, Slavic and East European
Thu, 01 Jan 1976 00:00:00 GMThttp://hdl.handle.net/2142/684121976-01-01T00:00:00Z